Monday, March 23, 2009

A trip to Saipan

Terri and I flew to Saipan over the weekend. Terri had numerous meetings with people dealing with things the clinic needed (as Chief of Staff, she has a lot more to do now!); and I also had some business on Saipan: a new store opened in Garapan that wanted our postcards!

La Moda Isla is a great store for tourists, with lots of arts and crafts, clothes and other stuff designed for visitors. They even have a small cafe inside.

We had an exciting trip home on the plane. We had to fly around in circles for a while before we landed... it seems that the plane that landed just before ours had a flat tire upon landing! We had to wait until the plane was removed from the runway before we could land.
(the above picture is of Turtle Cove, where the new Pulon Casino and golf course will be located. They are supposed to have a wedding chapel built at the end of the small peninsula)
It was strange, because we sort of saw the accident coming... It was busy in Saipan, so they were running several planes at a time. As Terri and I watched the plane that left just before ours, I mentioned to her that I thought one of the tires on the plane was low on air...
This is a gravel pit next to the airport, where a lot of the lime road base comes from

If you look closely, you can see the plane and a couple of emergency vehicles on the runway where we are supposed to land.

It was a rainy day, which had also held up the planes flying to Tinian

I got a quick shot of the plane that had been crippled with a flat tire as we landed. Everyone arrived safely, though they had an exciting ride! It was just luck that it wasn't us...

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